Are you wondering how you can get people to take action and follow up with you after receiving your direct mail? You’ve probably heard about how important your call to action (CTA) is in this endeavor, but what exactly should you say in your call to action?
The answer to your question is simple and complicated all at once, and we know that can be stressful. Here at Integra, we’ve helped our customers build thousands of direct mail campaigns over the years, and we’ve learned that CTA building is no less than an unlikely combination of both scientific method and art form. Any good CTA has to be:
- Simple, yet distinct from others on the market
- Exciting, yet reasonable for the customer to complete
- Enticing, yet beneficial for your business when followed
The list of properties that you as the mailing party need to balance could go on for miles, but we’re here to help you navigate this process and find your authentic voice in a sea of other companies’ CTAs. Cut straight through the noise and catch your best prospects’ attention with your own spin on some of the most effective possible direct mail CTAs.
…Well, what are you waiting for!?
Effective Direct Mail CTA Type 1: The “Visit Us in Person” Call to Action
Is your direct mail campaign one that targets a local region? If you’re using addressed saturation mail routes or Every Door Direct Mail (EDDM), you’re probably targeting customers within a certain distance from your brick-and-mortar headquarters or one of its branches. One of the main reasons for doing so is to draw attention to your business’s nearby location and, with a load of good planning and a dash of luck, encourage customers to visit.
When you’re attempting to draw traffic to a physical location, you’re making a bold request — but “bold” doesn’t mean “bad”! It’s a bit more of a lift for people to visit your shop than, say, making a phone call. But as long as you make it worth their while and show them what’s in it for them (and as long as you’ve targeted a truly local demographic), you’ll nurture a very real possibility of them coming out in droves.
Add something particularly appealing to your mailing that gives readers a sense of urgency. It doesn’t need to be the typical “now or never” type of spam everyone tends to send these days. But if you hold a limited time sale, or make the mailer itself into a set of coupons, you’re more likely to get people thinking about visiting within that time frame rather than, “Hm, maybe I’ll check them out sometime.”
Are you wondering what it might be like to work with Integra on your next direct mail project? Click below to learn what you might expect when you partner with our people.
Effective Direct Mail CTA Type 2: The “Visit Our Website” Call to Action
You have some things working in your favor if you choose this type of call to action, including:
- Ease of access: Most people today carry a smartphone in their pocket. Many have personal computers in their homes and work on business devices in the office or at the worksite. In other words, we’re connected more than we’ve ever been in history, which means visiting a website is just a few taps away. Prospects can much more easily “impulse visit” your website than they could drop by your physical location.
- Convenient engagement avenues: You can make it even easier for your customers by providing a simple way to reach you. If you’re using a URL, make it a short one that’s not a chore to remember. To take it a step further on the convenience front, incorporate a QR code that leads directly to the landing page you want your audience to visit. QR codes help with both CTA visibility and user convenience, but we recommend keeping a URL on your mailing as well for those who do not prefer scanning.
- Direct tracking: There are ways to track in-person visitors who show up because of your mailing, but it’s an imperfect system that can easily result in calculation errors. With the “visit our website” CTA, you can set up a landing page that tracks each and every visitor. Make the URL and/or QR code on your site exclusive to the mailing, and you’ll know that each hit on that URL came straight from your mailing efforts.
- Effective intelligence add-ons: Since people who receive online ads are, by definition, already online, pairing your direct mail campaign with an intelligent direct mail platform like SynergyMail will direct all your traffic in the same direction. If they see your postcard or catalog urging them to visit your site, then come across online ads with the same messaging, they’re significantly more likely to visit.
There are lots of positives to this type of direct mail CTA, but you’ll want to keep two caveats in mind. First, your website should be built out, attractive, easy to navigate and cohesive with the branding on your mail pieces.
Second, you should be sure your content appeals to your audience. You can cast a wider net since anyone in the world can visit your website, but that also opens up the potential for wasted money if lots of uninterested parties receive copies. You don’t necessarily have locality to lean on in this case, which means you may want to consider targeted mailing based on behavioral data rather than demographic data.
Effective Direct Mail CTA Type 3: The “Reach out to Us” Call to Action
If your business offers services more than products, or the products you offer are on the more complex or highly expensive end, you could encourage customers to get in touch with you. These kinds of CTAs can take many forms, including the following, to name a few:
- Call our office
- Fill out our contact form online
- Fill out our contact form and mail it back
- Email an expert
This type of CTA comes with elevated risk, because most people tend to prefer navigating the vast majority of the buyer’s journey on their own before contacting a sales representative. That being said, some niche cases simply require an expert in the field. Position yourselves as that expert — and make sure you’ve got the appropriate audience — and you’re likely to net qualified leads who need your guidance.
Which CTA Should You Use in Your Next Direct Mail Campaign?
So there you have it. Three of the most widely used, highly effective CTAs for direct mail that actually work when they’re used properly. You can add your own spin to each one of these options in nearly countless ways, so don’t feel boxed in by these categories. They’re merely umbrellas, and once you decide where your next work fits, you can put the full force of your creativity and brand personality to work.
Just remember the golden rule of CTAs: Show your audience that you understand where they’re at, what problem they need to solve and how they can solve it by answering your call with the outlined action. Furthermore, avoid one of the biggest of the most common direct mail mistakes by designing a clear, actionable next step that doesn’t get lost in the rest of your content.
Looking for some help nailing down that perfect CTA? Or perhaps you're ready to move to the print stage now that you've decided on the direction you want your audience to take.
Either way, Integra can help. Reach out below to speak with one of our experts and find answers to your questions.
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